Saudi Leads Airstrikes In Yemen

With the ongoing threat of rebels in Yemen and its Prime Minister’s call for help from the allies in the region, Saudi responded and sent warplanes to bring down rebels in Yemen. Several warplanes swooped down the area coming from Saudi and several of its allied nations.

Saudi Arabia has also made pronouncements that it would send ground troops should the tension in Yemen escalate threatening its peaceful neighbors. According to an adviser from Saudi, the sudden action from the gulf nations involved 100 jets from Saudi Arabia, 30 from the UAE, 10 from Qatar, 15 each from Bahrain and Kuwait and several others from Morocco, Sudan and Jordan. There were also naval ships sent coming from Egypt and Pakistan.
The Foreign Ministry from Egypt announced that the country will also be providing support through ground forces if matters take a sour turn.

Why were these countries so anxious to respond to Yemen’s crisis? The common denominator among these countries is that they are all predominantly Sunni Muslim nations. The faction that is causing havoc to Yemen is the Houthi rebels who are Shiite Muslims and are the nemesis of the Sunnis. The Sunni countries are fearful that another Shiite regime like that of Iran will rise in Yemen, threatening the peace in the region.

According to military analyst, Lt Col Rick Francona, having a Shiite run regime in the southern border is the last thing that these countries would want.

There were no involvements by the US in the attacks. The senior official of the White House has clearly stated that the US will not be involved in any military intervention against the Houthi rebels. While the US made this stance, the US Secretary of State did commend the ministers from the responding nations for the immediate effort that they did to contain the rebels. John Kerry pressed on that they will gladly share military intelligence and gave full support to the Arabian nations when targeting the rebels as well as in logistics.

With the deadly offense of the Sunni predominant nations, the supreme leader of the Houthi rebels stood his ground and said that his group will prove that anyone who invades Yemen will be face death in their hands.